[Iran Press TV] Former French President Jacques Chirac is mentally unfit to stand trial starting Monday on charges of misusing public funds when he was the mayor of Gay Paree, his lawyers say.
A medical report submitted to the court this week says that Chirac is in a state of vulnerability that makes him unable to answer questions about his past, Rooters reported.
'state of vulnerability' = he knows he's guilty?
"President Chirac indicates to the court his wish to see the trial go ahead and his desire to assume his responsibilities, even if he is not entirely capable of participating in the hearings," his lawyers, Jean Veil and Georges Kiejamn, said in a statement on Saturday.
It seems only yesterday that he was a world leader completely in control of his faculties...
Judge Dominique Pauthe will decide on how to respond to the issue when the trial opens with a procedural hearing on Monday.
Chirac has been accused of misusing public funds, abuse of trust and incurring illegal gains in a period between 1992 and 1995 when he was the mayor of Gay Paree.
If found guilty, he could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of 150,000 euros (USD213,400), though in practice a suspended sentence is seen as more likely.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
He was ever mentally unfit even for the job of dog catcher.
#2
I think the best punishment would be to relieve him of his wealth and estates, then put him in a modest nursing home on a suicide watch. He's only 79, so he could have another 15 years of staring at drab wallpaper and drooling.
Posted by: Barbara ||
09/04/2011 16:53 Comments ||
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#3
The man would take the tarnish off electing black Presidents
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2011 17:03 Comments ||
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#4
Give him some time to learn the rules and personalities of Washington politics before promoting him. All other things being equal, the current chief executive would have done better with a decade more experience.
#3
BP, it's from the Orange County Register. They're a VERY rare critter - a regular daily paper with a right-of-center editorial direction. Orange County's probably the last holdout of conservative Republicanism left in California.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
09/04/2011 13:54 Comments ||
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#4
There are republicans in California?
Didn't they see what happened to the Jews in Germany in 39?
[Straits Times] Former Republican vice-presidential hopeful and television commentator Sarah Mama Grizzly Palin ... the babe libs love to hate ... on Saturday slammed the state of the US economy on the watch of President Barack B.O. Obama.
Mrs Palin, a former Alaska governor, said she believed the United States had sunk into a 'systemic crisis' and reached a 'tipping point,' insisting she was seeking the 'restoration of the country that we love.'
'America faces a crisis ...this kind will relentlessly rage until we do restore all that is free and good and right about America,' she said at an event staged by the conservative Tea Party in Indianola, Iowa.
'It is not just fear of a double dip recession. And it is not even the shame of a credit downgrade for first time in US history. It is deeper than that,' said Mrs Palin, the darling of the movement. 'This is a systemic crisis due to failed policies and incompetent leadership.'
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2011 00:00 ||
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#2
At least we have a balanced trade with Pitcairn Island. Fletcher Christian can rest in peace.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/04/2011 2:00 Comments ||
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#3
How in the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks are we only selling 100 grand more to San Marino than we're importing from them? San Marino is like five families living on a mountain top in central Italy!
#6
Let's first equalize trade tariffs with British rates, like quintupling car tariffs, then we'll talk about your protectionism. Or how about shoes (17%) or food (~15%).
And don't give that lie about about the depression and trade protectionism. The US was the export powerhouse at the time and suffered the most. The net importing countries suffered much less as they substituted domestic labor or what they were importing.
#8
In addition to being able to print postage stamps, San Marino is also a major gem producer, especially garnets. It's the oldest continuously-independent nation in the world, and the world's oldest republic. There are no income taxes, and the country of 30,000+ has one of the highest GDP rates in the world. It has an army of 137 that also doubles as the State's police force. It's a GREAT place to visit. You know immediately when you've crossed the border, because it's immaculately clean and well-kept. It has great food and the prices were the best in Italy when I was there in 1973.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/04/2011 18:06 Comments ||
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#9
Eohippus Phater7165, thank you for that chart. It raises some questions, like why are we trading with the Gaza Strip? Forget that we have a negative trade imbalance, why are we trading with Hamass-controlled territory at all?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/04/2011 18:16 Comments ||
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#10
I'm less interested in the fact that we're trading with Gazoo than with who's doing the importing.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.